The Chinese are adopting a variety of strategies to strengthen their position in Asia, flexing both military and economic muscles to win friends and gain influence

“China has ambitions to become the premier military power among its regional peers, and a serious threat to US maritime primacy in the Asia Pacific,” said Sam Roggeveen, an Asian defense analyst with the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

Roggeveen added that if China were to deploy more than one carrier and equip them with high-performance stealth fighters, “it would become the pre-eminent regional maritime power, with the ability to coerce neighbors in disputes in which the US prefers not to get involved.”